I worked on SDI Neutral Particle Beam weapon Technology. That tech works, it it used as part of CERN (linear injectors and traps) , Some Ion Engines, and to to fight cancers by irradiating them. The Space flown prototype Beam Experiment Aboard Rocket is part of the Collection of the Smithsonian Museum.

@honeysucklecat

3 жыл бұрын

Imagine if all that money wasted on building a weapon was directed at those things, for the purpose of science. But, you know how it is. That wouldn’t make the rich richer.

@bobfg3130

3 жыл бұрын

The technology works but can't be used like they way they wanted. And it was probably cheap to counter.

@MartinCHorowitz

3 жыл бұрын

@@bobfg3130 No it was successful, and unstoppable. You need an atmosphere or a large asteroid to stop the beam. The Last Strategic Limitation talks between the Soviets and the US Banned Particle Beam Weapons in Space.

@burningchrome70

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your work.

@FluidKaos

3 жыл бұрын

Nice! I work on developing power sources for airborne laser weapons. A lot of the SDI dreams are starting to become realities.

The other thing you may not appreciate is that all the cutting edge US military projects forced the Soviet Union to spend a lot of money it did not have, acting against the ideology of communism and hastening it's downfall (which was always the ultimate goal).

@larryowsowitz2274

3 жыл бұрын

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Yeah a lot of money was spent but the end result was the collapse of the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries. Ultimately the size of the US military was reduced subsequently saving a lot of money as well.. Did/do the savings match what was spent? We’ll probably never know.

@pakde8002

3 жыл бұрын

That Reagan era myth has been debunked along with the myth that the Soviet losses in Afghanistan led to its downfall. Even without the USA or Nato the Soviet Union was doomed because it was too big to manage, at least in a humane way.

@jamesoverholt878

3 жыл бұрын

@@pakde8002 personally I think there is a straight line from Chernobyl to the collapse of the USSR. Consider how many nations had to pool together for the current safe confinement.

@sicily7220

3 жыл бұрын

@@wildlifetails The actual digital was long on it way in 1960s. The fall of communism in the USSR was doomed from its start. BY the 1980s you had empty food stores and more and more was directed towards its military not only within its own borders, but also Warsaw pact and other countries. Policies like USSR would supply economic package to countries if they declared themselves as communism\socialist (you can see how some countries would take advantage of this) or Khruschev attempt to create the USSR breadbasket (Midwest of the US) or Star Wars or Chernobyl or Archer 1983 or Afgan war. ALL of them led to the fall USSR, however Chernobyl in 1986 was very late to the game, the collapse was already occurring, it was not Chernobyl itself, but it was the shear volume of issues like Chernobyl that USSR could no longer attempt to keep parity with the West . The point being of STI or Star wars was not the Tech itself, but the US policy change and that policy change and that was the tipping point and from 1981 the collapse had begun and each event in the 80s accelerated it. Better for the USSR collapse in this way then in method where it will send 50,000 tanks into Western Europe just to survive. They could have been 20+ year behind in Tech, but it was real possibility. I mean Archer 83 almost caused this to occur. The 1986 summit between USSR and US leaders, showed Pres Reagan how far gone the USSR really was and it the US policy not some tech or some accident start us down that road of the fall of the USSR. I mean you can really go back to the 1961 or the date Khruschev was overthrown as the start.

@carlchristoff9489

2 жыл бұрын

I agree. There were billboards in the USSR saying "No to Star Wars". They really saw it as a major threat. Perhaps this was the single most brilliant piece of war propaganda in history. We need a new hero now, just as we had then.

George Schultze was NOT the "father" of the Hydrogen Bomb. That was Edward "Dr. Strangelove" Teller.

@carlosvasquez9890

3 жыл бұрын

True. That's a BIG mistake

@goodchessactor

3 жыл бұрын

You're right. George Schultz was the father of the Peanuts comic strip.

@mikejadis

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah! George Shultz was an economist not a Physicist or even a Scientist, he was one of Reagan's Secretaries of State - What was he giving a lecture on? Does any remember Ted Koppel's interview with Edward Teller on Night Line? Why isn't this interview or a transcribe of this interview available on the internet today? If you remember it, you know why.

@ericg7044

3 жыл бұрын

Care to enlighten those of us who were pre-living at the time? 😁

@ekramer2478

3 жыл бұрын

In the late 80s I was a student reporter for the Miami Hurricane at U Miami. Met Teller. He was like 90ish. We did 'Tea With Teller'. I sat back and poured tea for him. He dribbled that and cookie crumbs down over his tie. (Yes, suit and tie! He was a very proper gent.) Mostly he pushed the concept that his invention would and could some day be used for peaceful purposes such as energy. I let the physics nerds (Especially that precursor to a 4chan OG troll...) ask the questions. I smiled. I poured. I played hostess. I took notes! They kept running into asking questions that were on the top secret list (I'd tell you but I'd have to kill you...) When it came to giving answers. Now I have met up with I believe two people who were so damn intelligent that I frankly found them almost another species (And at one time many years ago I went through Network Engineering...don't ask. Chose to forget so much and that was LONG before the horror of Windows 10 etc...but did have a 4.0, for reference). Mr. Teller was the first. Hands may have been a bit shaky, but sharper than a fekking molecular filament wire weapon (allegedly...). What this elderly grandfather appearing gentleman understood and did...was beyond terrifying.

The missed out the chance to call it "Ronalds Ray Gun"

@brandonhinrichs387

3 жыл бұрын

Ronny's Ray Gun

Live BlazeStream of Simon's reactions to the Star Wars movies!!

@nathanburton2510

3 жыл бұрын

A whole side project in itself

@joeyr7294

3 жыл бұрын

That would probably be hilarious, but also would potentially make a 3hr movie into 6hrs with Simon's ADHD rants lol

@kevinfreeman3098

3 жыл бұрын

@@joeyr7294 only if he stops it to talk shit...

@spddiesel

3 жыл бұрын

@@kevinfreeman3098 am I right, Peter!?!

@garretth8224

3 жыл бұрын

It would take like 6 episodes per movie because of Simons ADHD rants.

Simon creating KZread channels: "We are Borg. Resistance is futile."

@MaxBrix

3 жыл бұрын

Blaze, "we are the things that grow on Borg".

1:40 - Chapter 1 - Background 4:55 - Chapter 2 - SDI Begins 8:35 - Chapter 3 - Problems & change 11:25 - Chapter 4 - Legacy

New SideProject idea: Simon watches StarWars.

@SkuLLetjaH

3 жыл бұрын

Blazeboi p̶l̶a̶y̶s̶ watches

@angelarch5352

3 жыл бұрын

Please Simon watch the Star Wars episodes in the Machete order! Do not watch them in numerical or chronological order, both methods are bad, and ruin certain dramatic moments. Only the Machete order works: 4,5,2,3,6,7 That's it! Do not watch 1, and do not watch 8,9... ever!

In just few minutes I've learned that Simon has never watched Star Wars and hasn't seen the Mummy films since he was a kid. Simon, I here by give you a week break from your KZread empire in order to catch up on all the films you're missing out on.

LOL @ shultz being the father of the hydrogen bomb. that would be edward teller. teller figured out that an A bomb could trigger fusion by focusing its radiation

@honeysucklecat

3 жыл бұрын

Dr. Teller was also one of the first scientists to point out the dangers of CO2 pollution causing climate change, back in the 1950’s.

"Scrapped Project" i think they might have completed this Project, i dont think they would tell anyone whether they did or not

I saw a poster on the Boston - T in 2000/2001 that read "Enron in Space" and showed a bunch of flying pigs. Haven't been able to locate the image since.

Good one! How about the creation of NYC Central Park. In its day it was a major undertaking and revolutionised what could be done with parks including cross traffic via depressed roads. It was in swamp land. 15,000 workers etc

I think the most important thing about the SDI and all of these projects is the technology and knowledge that we gained from them. Yes, the programs ultimately failed, but we still learned so much from all the money that was thrown at these projects. It's one of the biggest benefits (to me) about all of the US' military spending, you get lots of knowledge from it. Now, it takes years/decades for a lot of this knowledge to become know and common knowledge, but once it does, a lot of it is incredibly valuable.

@jwubbz

Жыл бұрын

Or you know Reagan could just not have been a dumbass and agreed to nuclear disarmeemt with the soviets and this wouldn’t be an issue we had to research

@SuperCatacata

Жыл бұрын

​@@jwubbz L

People over 25 that have never seen Star Wars need to be gathered up and sent to Alderaan.

@keirfarnum6811

3 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately the best we can do is send them to Aldebaran.

So no sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads then? :P

@akizeta

3 жыл бұрын

They're for Putin's tsunami-making super-torpedoes.

This project inspired my senior project in college, which was a research paper about international law in space. My conclusion: we needed more.

@stevengordon3271

3 жыл бұрын

With nobody to enforce the existing space laws, even more space laws would just make matters worse.

@justalurkr

3 жыл бұрын

@@stevengordon3271 no form of enforcement was even written into the treaties I studied, which is kind of where I was going in the paper. The Cold War was still on at the time (1984,) so enforcement was already a pipe dream.

Great content and production as always. Really enjoy all of your content. Thank you. Stay safe Family first 🦈

when i made eagle scout i was invited to a west point reunion at mama leones. in nyc. the guest speaker was gen abramson. the head of the sdi under reagan.

This is the time to tune up this thing before anything happens in the future. Why not, it’s already built, it just need to be activated and make it ready just in case.

I could see Simon now watching Star Wars for the first time.. Simon with his face twisted in horror “They didn’t even try to make this Scientifically accurate” 😋😂

Awesome! I thought that this was a subject vaguely touched on in a book I read and it was never really considered to be commonly known, to myself at least. I love it that the Fact Boi covers topics that I've heard about and others subjects that I wouldn't even think about.

Simon, I know you've never seen a Star Wars film, but on The Blaze you could look into the weird fest that was the Star Wars Holiday Special. It's the special that no one from the original Star Wars film cast speaks about. It's not even considered canon in the Star Wars universe.

@insanitysportal6692

3 жыл бұрын

There were actually two *more* Star Wars moves that also got the Canon shaft. "Ewok's..." Return or something like that was one...

Please do ITER Tokamak project

It’s a shame. Because we could really use something that can stop an ICBM right about now

I read a book series called The Seventh Carrier series by Peter Albano where the Chinese devised something similar to the Star Wars program to prevent the US and the Soviets blowing up the world, this sort of worked too well and ended up blasting any jet or rocket upon ignition effectively kicking the worlds Aerospace Technology back to World War 2 levels.

One of the issues with the lasers is shiny silver missiles are basically immune. Dark paint was required to get a reaction to start.

An idea of a Side Project video: MOSE Venice - the flood prevention system meant to protect Venice from high tides which have been an issue for quite a long time. They are already testing the gates and the project should be completed this year.

I remember that speech... They interrupted 3's Company.

It was not illegal. Lasers are not "nuclear weaponry" or "weapons of mass destruction".

@watcherit1311

3 жыл бұрын

Lasers need power. A lot of it.

@Willaev

3 жыл бұрын

@@watcherit1311 "needs lots of power" isn't a qualifier for "nuclear weaponry" or "weapon of mass destruction". Current military lasers developed for actual engagement of a target are chemically-pumped, not nuclear.

@watcherit1311

3 жыл бұрын

@@Willaev Not much chemical fuel in space and solar power is not enough for lasers. So nuclear reactor is the only option for lasers in space. And it is quite understandable why anything nuclear in Earth orbit is banned.

@0311Mushroom

3 жыл бұрын

@@watcherit1311 actually, it is not banned. I have no idea where you get that idea. The Soviets launched dozens of them since the 1960s. And most satellites have a nuclear reactor on board. What do you think powers Voyager? And what Whatley was recovering from the sand in The Martian? Banned indeed, name the treaty that banned it.

@watcherit1311

3 жыл бұрын

@@0311Mushroom Check "Outer Space Treaty". Could you mention at least one specific satellite (NOT just any spacecraft) that would have a power output similar to what would be needed for a space laser? Lighting a few lightbulbs (the power output of a Voyager) is not exactly powerful enough.

Good video 👍

"Physicist Edward Teller later told me that in 1967, when Ronald Reagan had just been elected governor of California, Reagan came to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for a briefing on a topic of Teller's research: how to defend against nuclear attack by using nuclear explosives. Reagan listened intently, asked many questions, but made no comments pro or con. This may have become the first gleam in Ronald Reagan's eye of what later became the Strategic Defense Initiative." - From George Shultz's book Turmoil & Triumph which may have confused Simon about who inspired Reagan. www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110632

@akizeta

3 жыл бұрын

Simon's scriptwriter. You don't think Simon researches these things himself?

Simon should do a side project on all his side projects

Please do Iron Dome

@kevinfreeman3098

3 жыл бұрын

I think that was on another channel

Mr. Westenhaver, I am surprised that you never mentioned Israel's "Iron Dome" as a legacy of the SDI. This missile intercept system is not laser-based (AFAIK) but it always seemed to me inspired by the concepts surfaced earlier in the SDI of knocking down missiles before they could land.

It wasn't unproductive, just an extremely long term investment. After officially ending the program, some of the more productive research threads were farmed out to the private sector and continued with better chances of success. Sadly, military research is how we achieve some of our most impressive advances.

Great video, need a new monitor now after smashing that like button

Admiral Akbar's famous line was not expected, but appreciated!

Fun fact: former Doobie Brother Jeff "Skunk" Baxter was one of the consultants on the Star Wars program.

How about a video on the Missile Defense Agency and all the successes it has had developing and fielding missile defense systems.

Blaze Bleed in less than 30 seconds. Damn Simon.

Little known fact: shortly after The Return of the Jedi came out, a NYT writer wrote he believed the line "It's a trap!" was supposedly directed at President Reagan about SDI. Several local news broadcasts made fun of the writer, as they pointed out that the move was in distribution channels by that point and had been finished for some time before President Reagan made his speech, but many of his political opponents continued to believe the story was true for years afterward. Also little known fact: it did, in fact, work, but not quite as President Reagan had intended. The Soviets ramped up their spending to both match the defensive measures and to increase their offensive measures, and the extra costs killed the USSR economies, eventually bringing the USSR to its knees economically.

I don't know if I can continue watching your videos until you've seen the Star Wars trilogy. Just the first one. The others you can watch at your own risk.

And today... the tech works. The lasers are much more powerful and compact. The tracking systems, MUCH more accurate and quick to process. The introduction of hyper velocity (hyper mach) missiles, now only legitimizes SDI's function. I'd be very surprised if the US space force (formerly an air-force division) does not actually have this in operation at the moment (but guised in misinformation as a past, and failed program).

@carlibridges6053

3 ай бұрын

I am starting to think you might be on to something.

Simon: Ballistic Missile Defense doesn’t work Me: laughs in SM-3, GBI, THAAD, and Iron Dome

@AcornElectron

3 жыл бұрын

😂 be really nice if any of those actually did function 100%

@thereallasre

3 жыл бұрын

It would be nice to be the king of all Londinium and wear a fancy hat. Nothing works 100% of the time.

@honeysucklecat

3 жыл бұрын

They do nothing to protect from ICBMs carrying nukes.

@honeysucklecat

3 жыл бұрын

@@thereallasre

@thereallasre

3 жыл бұрын

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣😂

Not a single word about the ARROW MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM?? A joint venture between the US and Israel to shoot down ballistic threats in the reentry phase with a kinetic impactor... It works and is operational. Live tests are conducted from time to time: "In a series of tests in July 2019 at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, the Arrow 3 system successfully intercepted 3 "enemy" rockets, one of them outside the atmosphere. The tests demonstrated Arrow 3's ability to intercept exo-atmospheric targets"

Never watched a Star Wars movie? That’s a difficult accomplishment. No judgment here by any means, but it’s as surprising as saying “I’ve heard of the Union Jack, but never seen it”. Also, MAD is probably the most accurate acronym ever, it conveyed more meaning than the full length words it stood for. I have huge disagreements with Reagan’s philosophy but because of timing and the fact he recognized that the way to beat the Soviets was to out spend them until their economy collapsed I have to give him credit for extending our lifespan as a species. The big question is: what do we need to save us now?

You should do the Erie canal

Perhaps make a video of the Russian Dome of Light / White wall of light

crazy to think the Iron Dome is a thing now

@bricolagefantasy7291

3 жыл бұрын

If you mean it is crazy to use modified air to air missile that costs $60k to chase home made projectile that costs $600. Yeah. Who can argue with that. But then again uncle sam pays for all that. Who cares right? Another money pit.

@nataliewitkowski913

3 жыл бұрын

@@bricolagefantasy7291 its crazy to think you took the time to write out this comment

I guarantee the SDI (Star wars program) is still in operation today

Yeeeesssss!!!! I'm so glad you're finally gonna watch Star Wars! Lmao!!!! You gotta watch all of them though!! Lol Have fun bro!

2:58 🎸🎶" Speak of mutually assured destruction?" "Nice story, tell it to Reader's Digest!" "Feeling paranoid, true enemy or false friend?" "Anxiety's attacking me and my air is getting thin." "I'm in trouble for the things, I haven't got to yet." "I'm chomping at the bit and my palms are getting wet." "Sweating bullets." 🎶 These guys described it best.... 🤘

I always thought that SDI hastened the end of the USSR. The soviets were bankrupted trying to keep up.

I've always thought that the Americans still have some part of this project going, there's no way that the Pentagon will spend this much money and get absolutely nothing out of it... no way!

Polyus probably got closer to the intended level of technology then the Star Wars program

When you saw you never saw the Star Wars movies I insta liked your video.

On this day, 40 years ago, this event happens.

Simon, your research team failed you. George Schultz had a Ph.D. In Industrial Economics (1949) and became the U.S. Secretary of State (1982). The father of the hydrogen bomb was Edward Teller.

@3:26 - George Schultz was considered the father of the hydrogen bomb? I thought that title went to Edward Teller. Apologies if someone else has pointed this out already.

Just thinking about how weird Reagan was ahead of his time with this, with China and Russia having military ambition and military satellites in space now

"It is possible to synthesize excited bromide in an argon matrix." - (who?)

Gee Simon, you make 'blasting your enemy off the Earth' sound like a bad idea.. Lol

SDI was a great success at what it was designed to do, that is be a cover for a secret program that was funded under it's umbrella. The good thing with these kind of covers is that even though SDI was a cover program you still got good science from it, even though you don't really care if it works or not. When the secret program is successful you just drop the cover program.

@akizeta

3 жыл бұрын

What was the secret program?

@michaelshortland8863

3 жыл бұрын

@@akizeta ?? It is a secret, that was the whole point.??

@0311Mushroom

3 жыл бұрын

Precursor technologies. Like GPS and kinetic kill weapons. It was never really about lasers, but that was what got all the attention.

@akizeta

3 жыл бұрын

@@michaelshortland8863 If it's a secret, then how do you know about it?

I worked on SDI at the WSMR. To prove it worked, we cut a WW2 tank in half in seconds. After that we proved it to the Soviets by vaporizing a defunct orbiting satellite. Yeah, it worked alright. It was first deployed in Poland. It caught the Soviets flat footed and it took them 10 years to catch up. Their system was, and still is, notably inferior. Today, it is all still top secret. The good news is that ICBM’s are now obsolete, though all sides still maintain them. I’m not sure why.

I better hear you spell out them acronyms from now on Simon xD

We need the lazer. We need it now

If I remember correctly, lasers are not baned by the outer space treaty

Come on Simon. I'm subscribed to 5 of your 72 channels

They built lasers, but never mounted them to the head of friggen SHARKS.

@keirfarnum6811

3 жыл бұрын

All we got were ill tempered, mutated sea bass instead. 😞

And here we are again, close to destroying ourselves.

Do you have sources where you got this information from?

The brilliance behind the SDI program - which did advance a lot of tech - is that it caused the USSR to essentially bankrupt itself attempting to counter it. It led to the fall of the USSR.

@FoXakaFoX

9 ай бұрын

Proof / Source?

In the late '80s in a restroom at Stanford I saw some graffiti on the Ass Gasket dispenser in a stall that said "SDI Support Hats"

SDI was an awesome PC game in the 80s too.

@turtle2720

3 жыл бұрын

From Cinemaware?

@hillbillykoi5534

3 жыл бұрын

@@turtle2720 Had to look it up. Had name wrong. Defcon 5 by Cosmi Corporation. Came out in 87 but dealt with SDI lol. Old memory.

SDI, Human Genome Project, Texas Hadron Collider. I can see why they had no money to fight organized crime and violent gangs.

Any money spent on trying to prevent crasy people from ending the human kind is not a waste at all.

Did you know that cartoon tv show in the 80 had this in it a spy game star blazers

There was at least one medical advance made due to SDI research if I remember correctly, but I forget what is.

Teller’s proposed x-ray laser (AND IT WAS TELLER NOT GEORGE SHULTZ!!!) was a hydrogen bomb that would have focused X-rays created by the detonation of the bomb at several different targets in the nano seconds before the bomb destroyed itself. So you would lob one of these up in response to a massed ICBM attack and it was supposed to destroy several warheads, thus in theory making the cost of stopping a warhead down close to or less than the cost building and launching a warhead, shifting the advantage to the defense. The problem of assessing an attack, launching a response in time to stop it, sorting cheap decoys from real warheads, targeting all the warheads, aiming precisely enough to hit them, and assuring that a hit destroyed them, much less actually making the X-ray laser itself work can be imagined!

Reagan never saw SDI as something to be built overnight. It was a decades long project. We've lost 40 years of serious research and development due to lack of proper funding. Such a system would work and be easily affordable as a cost sharing measure with our other allies around the world. Israel's Iron Dome Missile Defense program is the small scale version of SDI. The fact that we've made no serious effort in the last 30 years to develope a defense system against nuclear armed States and Regimes is pathetic, if not criminal on the part of our political establishment. No system is full proof but would give us the ability to more effectively deal with nuclear armed States and rogue regimes who try to hold the planet hostage with what amounts to nuclear blackmail.

FRICKIN LAZER BEAMS!!!!!

Anyone else think that they seriously missed the opportunity to name the X-ray Lazer the "XRAZER"?

It advanced space and laser technology used by NASA and the medical fields to this day. Now the bigger question? Is China able to do it...?

@keithprice4711

3 жыл бұрын

Sadly, I feel like they could or soon will be able to militarily compete with us

The little kid in me gets sad when I hear that someone decided to not use lasers.

Hard to believe you haven't seen star wars

Pretty much all Technologies of SDI are in use today. Railguns, Lasers, Kill-Vehicles, Ground-to-Space weapons. Not sure how much of their modern deployment is down to SDI research, but the concepts certainly stayed around. The US navy is still trying out Railguns, Rheinmetall has incorporated Lasers into their modular Air defense systems and Anti-Satelite Missles have been around for a long time, some can intercept ballistic missles as well. So the worst you can say about SDI is that it wasn't feasible back then. But it's a far cry from the joke people generally make it out to be.

Ok well maybe you should have brought us up to date on what is possible 35 years after this SDI. There must have been a massive technology increase since then. Lasers seem like the obvious choice.

George Shultz was not the father of the Hydrogen bomb. Hahaha, he was Secretary of the OMB under Reagan or something like that. Edward Teller was known as the father of the Hydrogen bomb. Glaring error Simon!

Treaties are only as good as anyone everyone to abid to them.

@mridlon1634

2 жыл бұрын

It’s like getting a restraining order, at the end of the day it’s just a piece of paper. I mean, when was the last time you’ve heard of a truly psycho ex or stalker abiding by one?

It’s the early 21st century... the USA has lasers that can shoot down planes and sink boats. Seems as though Ronnie Ray gun was just ahead of his time.

Well . It’s complete .. The defence program is finished . The Star Wars defence program is finished. The laser is finished. Iss power source as you see lots of solar panels . Hubble telescope is the laser base . Webb telescope/ camera is the laser focus point . A space station size laser ...

What!!?? Good morning to all of Simons minions 😈

@CAP198462

3 жыл бұрын

Praise Simon.

used to know someone who was convinced star wars was actually built and still operational but classified...

@davidfinley1214

3 жыл бұрын

my brother in law worked on it

Has no one told Simon that he’s NOT a comedian?

Wasn't the point of the cold war to defeat the enemy - without actually killing them? Russia spending and spending too overcome the "threat" of SDI, from my understanding, was a KEY (of not THE) reason Russia collapsed... Soooo - even though it was impossible, it completely served its purpose, didn't it? Add in the advancements mentioned in other comments and... It was smart to invest that money, there, wasn't it?

@akizeta

3 жыл бұрын

The rationale that SDI was an attempt to bankrupt the USSR was a story that arose after the fact of the collapse. The point of the Cold War was to either deter the enemy (the USSR from the US's point of view; the US from the USSR's viewpoint) from making the war hot; or it was to accumulate more weapons than the other side so that "our" side would be victorious over whatever was left of the planet. The collapse of the USSR was a surprise to everyone, but especially to the hawks on both sides, who were looking forward to a final war to decide whether Communism or Capitalism was the best system. Those hawks have done their best to build up armed forces and tensions since the 1990s so that they can replay the Cold War, but this time with the "right" result of it going hot and "our" side emerging from the ashes. It should be remembered that while nuclear weapons stocks were reduced after the Cold War went soggy, there are still nearly 14,000 nuclear warheads in the world. While some of the ABM tech has advanced (thirty years later) to where we have a few individual systems that _might_ intercept a lone warhead or two, no-one has the capability to reliably stop all the ICBMs and SLBMs and cruise missiles (and mega-torpedoes) that might be launched in an all-out war. Nearly every one of those warheads is capable of producing ten times as as many casualties as the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombs.

@angelarch5352

3 жыл бұрын

From my armchair historian position, I think that one could accurately debate that SDI took the Soviet Union to the brink of bankruptcy, which the Kremlin could maintain control of... And then the unexpected Chernobyl clean up expenses kicked them right off the edge from there... splat... no more Soviet Union.

it was 80s REAGAN AWESOMENESS!!!!!

We nead to reactivate this Programm

This cold war purposal probably needs to be looked at again. . . .?

@thedausthed

2 жыл бұрын

The US already has the Ground Based Midcourse Defense system (GMD) and Aegis BMD (which recently proved it can shot down an ICBM), so if they just invest in making more of them, they could defend against a Russian attack.

They look very innocent when apart . Iss space station. Hubble . Webb . When united , is a very powerful laser cannon.